Southeast

After dropping staggering amounts of rain on North Carolina

(Newser) -
A deteriorating Matthew was stripped of hurricane status Sunday morning and began making its slow exit to sea after unloading more than a foot of rain on North Carolina, flooding homes and businesses as far as 100 miles inland. What will go down as one of the most potent hurricanes...
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Georgia governor: Ice 'our biggest enemy'

(Newser) -
The warnings haven't minced words , and the potentially "catastrophic" weather set to hit the South has begun, with Atlanta already feeling the effects: Some 39,000 and counting have lost power there, with that number climbing by the thousands within spans as short as 10 minutes. In terms...
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Spring breakers will need to find another cheap, dangerous high

(Newser) -
On the heels of reports that bath salts are as bad as meth, Florida's not messing around: The Sunshine State has joined Louisiana in banning the sale of little white packets of crystals that people around the Southeast are smoking or snorting, because, "For lack of a better term,...
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(Newser) -
It seems that low wages and taxes eventually catch up to you. Moody's has identified 22 cities in the US that are ripe for a double-dip recession. Twelve are in the South, five in the Midwest, and the rest are a smattering of smaller cities in the Northeast and West—...
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Tennessee, Mississippi especially hard hit

(Newser) -
Severe thunderstorms in the Southeast killed at least 15 people over the weekend as floodwaters destroyed homes and flooded roads. Tennessee was particularly hard hit, with at least 11 confirmed deaths, AP reports. In Mississippi, one man drowned as his car was submerged under the rushing waters, and 2 others...
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(Newser) -
Washed-out roads and flooded interstate highways around Atlanta added to the misery today after days of torrential rain in the Southeast that claimed at least eight lives, including a 15-year-old boy whose body was found in the Chattooga River. Authorities urged people who don't need to drive to stay home,...
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Sanford used God-talk in confession; Spitzer, McGreevey didn't

(Newser) -
Mark Sanford's liberal use of religious rhetoric in confessing his affair prompts Gustav Niebuhr to observe that whether Sanford is pandering or actually penitent, he is very much in the tradition of Southern politicians caught in scandal. Bill Clinton, David Vitter, and John Edwards all applied an ample dose of...
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Drought forces Orme to borrow from nearby town's hydrant

(Newser) -
If the Southeast drought’s effects on Orme, Tenn., are a sign of things to come, folks in Atlanta should start scheduling their showers. The rural home to 145 people has run completely dry, and what water gets trucked in can be used only between 6 and 9 pm. This...
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Sunbelt lusts for Great Lakes' water, but eight states vow to keep it

(Newser) -
You'd think the warm weather and easy living would make the West and South leave Frostbelters alone. But no, they want what that frost is made from: water. As drought and development strain limited local water resources, the Sunbelt wants to tap some of the billions of gallons of Great...
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Reservoirs nearly dry; governor asks Bush to declare disaster area

(Newser) -
With water supplies dwindling because of a severe drought, Georgia's governor declared a state of emergency today and asked President Bush to declare the northern part of the state a disaster area, the AP reports. The state wants permission to skirt EPA rules governing reservoir levels to deal with the...
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Triple-digit temperatures take toll in Midwest, Southeast

(Newser) -
The heat wave sweeping across the Midwest and Southeast has claimed at least 49 lives over the past week. Officials in Alabama and Memphis reported the 10 most recent deaths on Saturday, mostly elderly citizens. The weather forecast for next week predicts some relief from the triple digit-temperatures that has...
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Some corporations may profit off tighter greenhouse gas regulations

(Newser) -
Some utility companies may actually benefit financially from the Supreme Court ruling forcing the EPA to crack down on greenhouse gas emissions, the Wall Street Journal reports. While it will cost them millions in the short-term to meet new requirements, utilities in government-regulated markets—mostly in the Southeast, Great...
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